24 June 2010

Donuts!!

My friend is leaving town and we've been talking about making donuts for almost a year now, and we finally did it! I used a recipe called "Crispy and Creamy" which I suppose is to avoid legal troubles from Krispy Kreme but these donuts are quite Krispy Kreme-like! I think... I haven't had a Krispy Kreme donut in years (which is really sad) but from what I can remember, the texture is spot on.

The dough isn't super sweet, so you'll want to use a pretty sweet glaze to make up for that. Some of the reviewers tried using more sugar, but apparently that messes up the reaction with the yeast. I followed the recipe almost exactly and the texture was great, so I'd say keep it as is.

I made the dough in my Kitchenaid, the first time I've used the dough hook. This made it SO EASY! I am going to have to start making more bread (or cut Heather's recipe in half so it'll fit in my Kitchenaid bowl!) because I really was surprised how great the hook is! You can do this by hand, of course, you just have to do a lot of stirring.

The dough was really interesting. After the first rise, it was huge (you are putting a ton of yeast in it!) and then when I poked it, it totally fell. This was OK because I was going to roll it out anyway, but I was really surprised and worried.

Some of the reviewers said they'd had trouble with the donuts falling when they put them in the oil. Because of that, I was super careful with the donuts when handling them. They came out totally fine and fluffy, so just be careful and I think you'll be fine too!

Directions
1. Put the water and the yeast in the bowl for your mixer (if using) or your second largest mixing bowl. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. It should smell doughy and should be bubbled on the top of the water. If it isn't, your yeast is probably bad, so try again with new yeast.
2. Add the milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and 2 cups of the flour to the bowl. Mix on the lowest setting for 5 minutes or stir until totally combined.
3. Add the rest of the flour, in 1/2 cup increments. Mix until the dough forms a ball and doesn't stick to the side of the bowl.
4. Grease your largest mixing bowl and put the dough in the bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise 1-2 hours or until double in size. The original recipe says it's risen when you poke a hole and the indent stays, but it did that before even rising, so I don't know what that means. It's gonna get huge, you'll know! Like I said before, when I poked it, it totally fell anyway.
5. Flour a large surface and gently roll the dough to a 1/2 inch thickness. By "gently" I mean, don't force it. You don't want to push out all of the air, though you'll push a lot of it out. It'll take a lot of gentle rolling to get it to the right thickness.
6. Line baking sheets with wax paper and grease with butter or cooking spray (I used baking spray that also has flour in it). Cut the dough with a floured donut cutter (or two different sized circle cutters or a large glass and a shot glass or whatever you want to cut with). You'll have to re-dip in flour after every cut. You want to cut the donuts as close together as you can, as you can't re-roll the dough. I made 34 2-inch donuts (and a few more "holes" that I cut from the bigger scraps). How many you make will depend on how big you made them
7. Gently place the donuts on the greased wax paper and cover with a cloth. Allow to rise until double again, at least an hour.
8. Pour oil into deep fryer or large sauce pan and heat to 350. Gently place the donuts in the oil. You want to use as light a touch as possible to pick up the donuts. If you greased well, this shouldn't be hard. Fry on each side 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oil and place on a drying rack to drain off oil. Frost or decorate as you'd like!

Suggestions for frosting
Alex made a chocolate bourbon glaze (I don't know the recipe) which was delicious but not quite as sweet as these donuts needed. We also rolled some in powdered sugar (my favorite) or cinnamon sugar. Tina made a maple glaze with maple syrup, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk (I think) and then sprinkled with toasted pecans. The recipe suggests making a glaze with powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and water. You can do whatever you want! Add sprinkles or nuts or coconut or chocolate chips or food coloring or jelly or WHATEVER!

Other tips
We tested the oil by using some of the scraps from the original cutting. We had a small bowl of scraps. My friend tried making patties with them, but the texture of them wasn't as good because they'd had all the air smooshed out of them. You can fry the scraps as they are, but I wouldn't recommend re-rolling or re-shaping them.